Horner: ‘Verstappen on the edge and Wolff needs to STFU’

Christian Horner has based his analysis of Verstappen’s controversial race on the idleness of the racing stewards. He’s also dumbfounded by the limelight smuggler Toto Wolff, after the Mercedes boss stuck his oar in where it isn’t wanted.

Red Bull found themselves in a position after the race in which their drivers had given polar opposite performances. Daniel Ricciardo had a smooth drive to 2nd place and gave the team an additional 18-points whilst Max Verstappen became the talking point for the wrong reasons and finished outside the points.

After being informed of Toto Wolff’s comments in which he labelled the young Dutchman “refreshing yet dangerous” and went on to compare him to Senna, Christian Horner replied with,

“I’m surprised that Toto’s commenting on something that’s got nothing to do with him, but I think it was firm, it was on the edge, he got away with it today, the Stewards were happy with it. So if there were to be an issue or a conflict of any rules I’m sure [FIA steward] Danny Sullivan’s an experienced guy, he would have called them up or [race director] Charlie Whiting would have reported it to the Stewards.

There was no action from the Stewards, when he looked back at it, it was on the edge, and obviously he got away with it today. I’m sure he’ll have a look at it and learn for future races.”

– Christian Horner

“He got away with it today” does suggest that Horner believes there’s a possibility that he won’t get away with it tomorrow. To put to bed any doubt that Horner will be having words with his driver before Monza, he added,

” The start wasn’t great, he recovered into the first turn, he got chalked… Obviously there’s a lot of focus on the move with Kimi, but bar that he’s driven very well all weekend.”

In an industry in which points are the only thing that equates to success, any team boss would be wary if one of their drivers started to become a liability to themselves, and Max is driving a fine, albeit weaving line at the moment. Had Verstappen been less aggressive in his defensing here, he could have scored points. That’s all that matters to Red Bull Racing.